Watch RIM torture its BlackBerry smartphones [Videos]

While new Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins has to fix a lot of things with the company’s BlackBerry smartphones, I think it’s safe to say that durability isn’t going to be at the top of the list. Besides the old trackball nightmares, BlackBerry handsets are known to be pretty durable and that’s not an accident. On its blog, RIM is giving us a look at its durability testing, so let’s see what’s up.

This isn’t the first time we’ve gotten a glimpse at what handset makers do to test the ruggedness of their devices but it’s always fascinating to me because these devices can get thrown through the ringer. I don’t care how delicate you are with your smartphone or what case you have on it, it’s nearly impossible to get through a two-year contract without dropping it, scratching it or getting a little bit of moisture on it.

Here, we see a BlackBerry Curve 9360 get doused in a bucket of water and then it appears to be working fine. While dropping your phone in a bucket of water or the toilet (it happens, sadly) will likely kill your device, I know many of us use our smartphones when it’s raining. It’s good to see this working in the video, although some YouTubers have pointed out it could very well be a different Curve you see at the latter portion of the video. I don’t think so.

This is a drop test but it’s just kind of weird and dumb. I know that RIM’s trying to make it look cool and artsy but this video kind of looks like a render. I’ve dropped many a BlackBerry, so I know these are made of stern stuff but I don’t think this video is as effective as actually dropping one in a recognizable setting. We know a thing or two about making videos about dropping phones.

I’ve saved the best for last, as this video shows you a BlackBerry Torch being bent to death by a machine. I’m not expecting any phone to really handle this type of bending and flexing but it does go longer than I expected before it snaps.